Authors: Vincent Trigili
I gasped and said, “The gate room!”
“Let me guess: this is also a famous room?” asked Shea.
“Yes! This is where the Black Snakes … er, Adders first came to your realm!” I said as I tried to take it all in.
“It seems that you’re getting something of a school field trip out of this,” said Master Mantis with a bemused smile.
The Master then walked up to the gate and activated it with a simple gesture and a command word. He said, “I will go first to make sure it is safe on the other side. You two count to ten, and if the gate is still open you can assume it’s safe to follow.” With that, he turned and walked through the gate.
“Is that safe?” asked Shea.
“How would I know?” I asked. Then, after a pause, “I guess that’s long enough. Let’s go.”
She started to say something, but I did not want to risk keeping a high-ranking wizard waiting. I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me as I walked through. We came out in the town where I had first met Shea, but the town was much worse off than when we had left it. The piles of bodies had been almost completely consumed by the fires, but the stench of burning and decaying flesh was still overpowering. Most of the homes in the town had been gutted, and there was trash everywhere.
Shea gasped, said something under her breath, and then took off running. I quickly followed her to the same house that Craig had taken me to when we needed supplies for our trip. She rushed into the bedroom and then called out, “Dusty, please help me move this!”
She was trying to move a pile of debris that looked like it used to be a bed. I reached out with my telekinesis and lifted pieces of the pile out of her way. Little by little, we worked at it until it was all moved to the far wall. As we finished clearing the pile Master Mantis arrived in the room and asked, “What are you looking for?”
Shea did not answer and instead dove quickly to the floor and touched several different places in what looked like some kind of special pattern. As soon as she touched the last place, a section of the floor disappeared, revealing a hidden compartment. She gasped and pulled out a large bundle of paper saying, “It’s safe!”
“What is that?” I asked.
“All my notes! Everything I know about potions, reagents, and … everything!” she said. “It’s my only copy.”
“Then why didn’t we go back for it?” I asked.
She blushed a little and said, “We were not sure at first if we could trust you, so we decided we would come back for it later.”
“Well, if you trust me now, I can quickly make a copy of it, and you will not have to worry about losing it again,” I said.
“How?” she asked.
“With this,” I said as I pulled out my datapad. I took the papers from her and scanned them onto the pad. “There, now a complete copy of that is on this, and when I get home I can create all the paper copies you want.”
“Wow,” she said as I showed her the images on the screen of the pad.
“Shea, may I take a look?” asked Master Mantis. I jumped a little when he spoke up because I had forgotten he was there watching.
She hesitated but finally said, “I suppose so,” and handed him her notes. He thumbed through the notes, stopping at random pages.
“Shea, this is a real treasure of knowledge. You should be proud of it,” he said.
Shea was taken aback by this compliment, but said, “Thank you, Master.”
“If you like, I can carry your copy for you until we are finished so that it does not get damaged as we trek through the woods,” he said.
“Um … okay, I guess,” she said. I could tell she was very uncomfortable with this.
“Good, then let’s be going,” he said as he effortlessly slipped the notes into a pocket that was much too small to hold them.
We left the town and headed back through the woods along the path I had taken when I fled from the sorcerer. Parrinians are born with an innate ability to build perfect mental maps of anywhere they have been. My instructors in school told me that it evolved many ages ago to help deal with the vast distances our ancestors would migrate deep underwater where the light from the suns never reached. We as a race never lost that ability, and that meant I could track my way back through these woods perfectly without any real effort. This gave me plenty of time to start asking questions. I was still on the spying mission for Master Shadow, and I could not let him down.
“Master Mantis, may I asked some questions while we walk?” I asked.
“Certainly,” he said.
“Master, why do the people of this world hate wizards?’ I asked. It was not directly related to my mission, but it was a question burning in my mind to which I needed an answer.
“Hate wizards? No, they don’t hate wizards, they hate war,” he said.
“Master, I don’t understand,” I said.
“It is a problem of perception. The route you followed was through the lands that have taken the brunt of the war. Out here, all people see are magi of all kinds trying to kill each other, and when powerful magi fight, collateral damage is certain. Understandably, if that is all you see, then you blame magi in general and do not discriminate in your hatred. However, elsewhere, where the largest battles have not reached, wizards are seen as the good guys. They have time to help the general community, show up to defend towns from all manner of attack, and in general be good citizens. So you see, it is just about what you are exposed to, which will shape perceptions,” he said.
I thought about that for a while, and it did seem to make sense. Those poor people had undoubtedly been through some very nasty battles and, judging by that town we just left, it must be a constant threat to those out here.
“Think about it this way, Dusty: if the good people of that town knew that the men destroyed their town because Shea was there, they would hate her and blame her for the attack. Now, is that fair?” he asked.
“No, Master, I guess not,” I said. I walked along a while in silence, thinking about that. I could see his point, but I did not like it because that meant that good people might someday hate me for doing nothing but my duty. As we traveled, I noticed that Shea was very pensive, and I wondered what she was thinking about. I did not want to ask her in front of Master Mantis and risk embarrassing her.
“Master, what if we get to the beach and the sorcerer is there?” I asked.
“He won’t be,” he said.
“Master, why not?” I asked.
“Because I am with you, and they will not risk attacking me, even in the highly unlikely event that they have enough power to challenge me, because that would draw the attention of the Council,” he said.
“But I watched just one of them defeat three necromancers with great ease, Master,” I said.
“Yes, and that is very interesting,” he said.
“In what way, Master?” I asked.
“Well, sorcerers rarely fight among themselves like that. It’s almost as if the two that trapped you are at war with the other sorcerers. Very interesting indeed,” he said.
He did not seem at all worried that the three necromancers were taken out so easily, which baffled me. We were all alone out here and very likely no match for those two, and yet Master Mantis seemed to think we were in no danger. In fact, he seemed to think he could take them alone. I wondered: just how powerful a man was I traveling with? We walked on for a while longer in silence while I tried to make sense out of everything, when I noticed we were getting close to the ocean.
“Master, just through those trees should be the beach chairs, but we should have been walking on beach sand for a while already,” I said.
Then as we passed the trees, we entered a large clearing that was completely surrounded by a deep moat. The moat looked like it used to be filled with water, but now was just a muddy trench. I jumped over the trench, walked to the center of the area and said, “Here, this is where the door was that we came through.”
“But where is your ocean, Dusty?” asked Shea.
“I don’t know, it should be here,” I said. “I know I saw it and swam in it!”
“Easy, Dusty,” said Master Mantis. “It is just a problem of perception again.”
“How so?” asked Shea.
“See this muddy trench?” Master Mantis said as he pointed to it, “It was filled with water at one point, and that is what Dusty was swimming in.”
“No way!” I said. “It was a vast lake! I swam and swam for hours and never found anything.”
“I don’t doubt that, but you were swimming in circles. The ground still holds residual power from the massive illusion they wrapped around this place. You perceived the vast ocean but were just swimming around this loop the whole time,” said Mantis.
“But, Master, I would have known if I was underwater, and I was,” I said.
“Yes, that is why they needed the deep trenches filled with water; otherwise you would have noticed something was wrong when you were still breathing air,” he said.
“Master Mantis, that would imply this trap was set specifically for him, and it was no random chance that he was caught,” said Shea.
“Yes, which makes the whole thing much more interesting,” he said. He investigated the area a bit more and then said, “I must bring this report to the Council.”
“Master, does that mean I can go home now?” I asked.
“Yes, Dusty, it does,” he said.
“What about Shea?” I asked.
“I will bring her to her brother, who is still en route to Syncillia,” he said.
“No,” said Shea.
“No?” asked Master Mantis.
“I want to go with Dusty, if he will take me,” she said.
I looked at her, not sure what to say. She could not possibly understand what she was asking. The Vydorian Realm would be alien to her; she would never fit in. “Shea, I don’t think you know what you ask,” I started.
“No, I know exactly what I ask. I want out,” she said.
“Out?” I asked.
“Yes, out. Out of this life. Out of this constant cat-and-mouse game where I get innocent people slaughtered just because I happen to live in their town,” she said.
“Shea, it's not your fault … ” I started.
“Yes, it is. If I hadn’t been in that town, or the dozen before it, none of them would have been attacked. Did you not see the bodies of the children? Babies and nursing mothers, even!” After saying that she broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. It was a while before she calmed down enough to talk. “Dusty, if I leave here and help you in your war, then I will be helping innocent people instead of getting them killed.”
“Shea, my dear, all war has collateral damage. If you join him, you will not only be helping them to kill people, but you will inevitably cause the same kind of collateral damage that you are trying to avoid,” said Master Mantis.
“I know, but at least I will be fighting evil and doing some good,” she said.
“Shea, the realm I come from is nothing like this one,” I said. I tried to explain to her just how different it was. I told here that we flew around in great boats and traveled to the stars. I told her that there were many different kinds of aliens which she would come across on a regular basis. I tried to explain to her that she would be like a baby, unable even to support herself because the realm was so different, but it did no good.
“Dusty, oh, it all sounds so wonderful, and I am sure you can help me to understand the basics,” she said.
“Master Mantis, are there any rules against this?” I asked.
“Yes, but none that would apply to her,” he said with a sigh. I could not tell if he was in favor or against this idea of hers.
“See, Dusty, there’s no rule against it, so let me come,” she said.
“Shea, I am returning to the front lines of a war. There are only a handful of us against a massive number of pirates. The likelihood of us surviving is not very high,” I said.
“Then at least I will die fighting and not like a trapped weasel,” she said.
I sighed and then said, “Master, can you bring us to Craig?”
“Certainly,” he said and then transported us instantly to the edge of a clearing where Craig was setting up camp for the fast-approaching night.
As we appeared, he jumped to his feet and drew his sword. “Who goes there?”
“Craig!” yelled Shea, which was not really the answer to the question, but it did seem to work. We brought Craig up to date on the events he had missed, and then I told him what his sister was asking.
“Shea, you can’t,” he said.
“Craig, it is the only way. If I stay here we will be on the run for the rest of our lives,” she said.
“But if you come with me, you will never see him again,” I said. It might be an empty threat, but I doubted that anyone would look favorably on people moving back and forth between the realms.
“What do you mean?” asked Craig.
“Dusty is right. If she decides to move to his realm, it has to be permanently,” said Master Mantis.
“Why?” asked Craig.
“Because that is the ruling of the Council,” said Master Mantis.
“Master, do they know of her wish?” I asked.
“Yes, I filled them in while you three were catching up,” he said.
“Then it’s settled, I am going,” said Shea.
“No, it’s not,” said Master Mantis.
“Why not?” she asked.
“That is Dusty’s decision. As a Second Rank Battle Wizard, he alone in this realm has the authority to grant that request,” he said.
“Master, forgive me, but I am just an apprentice,” I said.
“Apprentice in power, but not in rank or authority. Make no mistake: you are my peer in authority,” he said.
I could not handle what he had just said to me. It did explain why so many were calling me master, but I just could not accept it. Not me, no way. I decided he was wrong and left it at that.
“Then, Master Dusty, if you take Shea, please take me with you,” said Craig.
Now, this was getting out of hand. Then an idea occurred to me. “No, Craig, I can’t. Only a wizard can go where I am going.”
“Then Shea can’t go either,” he said.
“But I can,” she said. Craig turned to look at her in surprise. “I wish to join Alpha Academy as a wizard and pledge my allegiance to them and their war.”